Sasson: The Frankfurt International Exhibition Center used to hold carpet trade-fairs every year: Carpet dealers from across the world would rent booths, with the size depending on their financial ability, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. they would exhibit and offer their goods to customers. Yours truly, together with my brothers Nissan and Ezra, had a prestigious booth in the exhibition hall, but so did many other carpet retailers, and we wanted to stand out.
One day I had an idea: Most dealers stayed in one hotel, close to the exhibition hall, and there was no afternoon or evening programme. I approached the hotel manager and offered him to rent the great hall of the hotel out to me for a certain period of time, so we could arrange a private carpet fair.
It was an unusual offer but the hotel manager accepted it nonetheless, and a contract was signed. Now there was another problem: How can I attract the carpet buyers, who return exhausted from the fair in the afternoon, to my own private fair?
The answer here was easy: there was one way, and that was throwing an Iranian party! With Iranian food and music, the event became a tradition, and we started inviting famous singers like Hayedeh and Sattar. This both increased our carpet sales and made the other traders leave Frankfurt with good memories, memories associated with our business. A win-win situation.
